The
Los Angeles Times is reporting that TiVo is about to launch a new
system that interjects its own commercials, sweepstakes offers and
other promotional messages when a TiVo user is fast-forwarding through
a network block of commercials. Up until now, one of the main
advantages of TiVo has been its ability to skip commercials. Clients
signed up by the millions to use the DVR (digital video recorder)
system and even agreed to pay a monthly or lifelong fee for the TiVo
service.

In an attempt to woo Madison Avenue, TiVo is taking a risk that might
very well backfire on them. While TiVo has ascended to stellar name
brand recognition, there are many other ways to record TV. Replay TV’s
DVRs don't inject commercials. Other more generic DVRs that come
directly from cable companies also don’t dare overstep existing
commercials. At least, they don’t for now.

XM Satellite Radio attempted to sell commercials a few years back, but
quickly abandoned the idea upon complaints from users who were paying
their $10 per month to avoid hearing ads on radio. Besides the
excellent user interface, much of what users are paying for with the
TiVo service is the ability to skip commercials they don’t want to see.
If TiVo’s new model creates strong profits, everyone will jump on the
bandwagon, but considering the consumer backlash about advertising on
TV, it is more likely TiVo’s experiment will fail like XM’s short-lived
commercial sets.